Claus with a cause

STOCKTON - Darkness had yet to lift and a chill pierced the bones as 30 police officers and Chief Eric Jones gathered in the parking lot of a north Stockton restaurant early Christmas morning.

Roger Phillips

STOCKTON - Darkness had yet to lift and a chill pierced the bones as 30 police officers and Chief Eric Jones gathered in the parking lot of a north Stockton restaurant early Christmas morning.

One officer, one volunteer and a black cadaver dog named Hailey all were dressed as Santa.

Policemen who have been pushed to the brink by Stockton's crime epidemic loaded donated toys, games, stuffed animals and children's bicycles into the backs of pickups.

A police chaplain led a prayer.

And then, two separate entourages split up for a feel-good morning at the tail end of a feel-bad year. Continuing a tradition dating to 2000 - a ritual Jones says "continues to build bridges between police and the community" - the officers spent Christmas morning delivering gifts to the youngest victims of Stockton's unrelentingly violent 2012.

"The generosity of this community never ceases to amaze me," said Sgt. Pete Smith, whose late brother, Officer Matthew Smith, was deeply involved in the gift-giving event before his death from cancer two years ago at 54.

The first stop Tuesday morning was in east Stockton. A line of pickups and police cars and a paddy wagon poured into the neighborhood, blaring sirens, rousing several residents from holiday slumber.

The purpose of the visit was to deliver some cheer to 9-year-old David O'Brien, who took two gunshots in his arm on a Saturday night in October when he and his uncle were in the wrong place at the wrong time during a gun battle that left a 20-year-old man dead near Morada Lane.

David, who received a new bicycle and helmet from the police, showed off his scars to anyone who asked. His mother, Aliesha, became emotional.

"There are good people out there," she said. "After all this happened, there are still good people out there."

Not many blocks away, the gift givers stopped by the residence of Miguel Sanchez, Kristy Reich and their two young boys. Sanchez is still shaken two months after an armed robber told him to get on his knees and stuck a gun against his neck.

The robber made off with money and jewelry but listened to Sanchez's pleas for his life and did not physically harm him.

For this reason and because of the toys police brought his boys, it made sense when the choked-up Sanchez called himself "a sweepstakes winner."

At a housing development off Country Club Boulevard, residents nervously crept out of their apartments when the raucous police posse arrived. One man joked, "I thought they were coming to get me."

Instead, police had come to brighten the day for 23-year-old Mary Scott and her three young boys. Earlier this month, Scott's family was displaced by a house fire. For a while, she did not know what she would do or where she would end up living.

Christmas morning, Scott and her boys were visiting her sister when police arrived with a bicycle, toys, clothing and blankets.

"It just feels good that my boys will be able to have Christmas after all," said Scott, adding that she has found a new apartment for her family.

A visit to a duplex near Pixie Woods had a personal meaning for Santa Claus, masterfully portrayed by Frank Guerrero, a volunteer with the police department's youth activities organization.

When the door opened, Guerrero's sister, Patricia, was on the other side.

It has been eight months since Patricia's 25-year-old son, Michael, was gunned down in south Stockton. Her pain is still raw.

Patricia is raising Michael's seven children, and with her Santa-clad brother directing traffic, officers toted in what seemed like half of the toy department at Target. Patricia quietly sobbed and didn't try to stop.

"This is the first Christmas without him," she said. "It's really hard. Looking into his kids' faces, they all look like him. If he was here right now, I would tell him I love him and 'Merry Christmas.' "